Tracks of Flame
by MiyuTanemura
Summary: "It was well known that everywhere Natsu would go would show signs of his passing through. Gray wasn't too worried about losing track of him. Until the day where Natsu went missing and the only sign were the tracks of flame he left behind. Gray had to find Natsu." Natsu/Gray, established relationship. Drabble


I don't think there are warnings for this drabble. Well, except for the typos and such. This didn't exactly get a second read and I wrote it mostly asleep (also, with a damn cold, ugh). Huh, I guess it's an established relationship...

Crossposted from my AO3.  
Maybe this could be developed later, I dunno. It's probably not that interesting. *shrugs*

* * *

 **Tracks of Flame**

If there was one thing for which Natsu was (notoriously) known it was the path of ruins he left behind.

It wasn't such an unexpected occurrence given that he was a mage from Fairy Tail - the guild itself was notorious for the path of destruction its members left behind, much to the Master's continued headaches - but he was among the worst.

In hindsight it was kind of funny.

But only in hindsight...

* * *

Gray and Natsu were a _thing_.

They had been for quite a while and, while received with some surprise (and a teeny tiny _flood_ ), no-one batted an eyelash at them whenever they started expressing their feelings. Through some heated fights.

Gray had been cornered by Lucy, asked to refrain their brawls a little and looked at with a strange gaze that had left him feeling uncomfortable. Who knew what went through the mind of the celestial mage...

Either way, everything was going pretty normally. The team had gone on a mission to a nearby village, the mission wasn't anything too much but Gray had noticed some _oddness_. It wasn't that there was something too glaring. No. Gray had quite difficulty in putting his finger on the problem. Then again, he blamed the heat.

Ice mages weren't meant to be in overly hot places. That was the preferred place for people like Natsu, whose brain had melted long ago.

So Gray was laying limply in bed, too tired to move a muscle. Yet he could hear Natsu and Lucy talking. It sounded strange, Natsu seemed to be lacking energy and Gray wondered, distractedly, if he'd somehow given Natsu the tiredness due to the heat.

After a while he heard Lucy say her goodbyes to Natsu.

The fire mage entered their room and, silently, approached Gray. The ice mage wanted to say something, to open his eyes, to _move_ , but it took too much energy. So he remained in his prone position.

Natsu was silent but he held one of Gray's hands - the heat being comforting instead of overwhelming - and then ran his free hand through Gray's hair. Afectionately.

Soon enough he was leaving, still without saying a word, and that felt odd to Gray.

Time passed.

Gray barely noticed it, as he was in a plane between asleep and awake, alert.

It was night - Gray could move better and breathe and basically he had energy again.

The ice mage went to check on the girls.

Everything was fine until the moment the ground shook.

But it was a powerful earthquake.

Lucy mentioned something about Natsu being away for too long and how he was in a shadier area of the town. The ruins, maybe.

The team hurried to the place where Natsu might be.

As they reached the ruins they saw mayhem. People were stuck here and there. The team hurried to help people here and there but their goal were the Gates.

Where Natsu supposedly was.

As they reached the place, old stone still standing and dust spread high in the air, they didn't see anyone.

Frantically, the team spread out through the maze of rocks, through the clouds of dust.

Gray coughed. It was getting stuck in his throat. And then he found himself stopping, in shock.

It was an alley, or perhaps an avenue, and it was _empty_.

However there was a sign of Natsu.

Two large columns of fire ripped through the slabs of stone underfoot. Tracks of flame burned and Gray wondered why he hadn't seen them before.

The girls didn't take long to reach him and they exchanged bewildered glances.

But Gray only knew one thing; those weren't good news. Natsu was missing and Gray had a bad feeling.

They had to find Natsu.


End file.
